Summon
by Hikaru Irving
Summary: Spoilers for all of Org. XIII. Various scenarios counting down from Xion to Xemnas, where all members of the Organization can call forth summons a la Final Fantasy, includes some boss fights throughout the Org. XIII storyline. Axel has two summons :D


A/N: After many scribblets featuring many different aspects of my OC's Berek, Adam, and Klein, I decided I wanted to try a ficlet with established characters xD These are just some scenarios if the Organization had FF summons … yeah.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, I'm just playing with it.

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_No. XIV, Xion._

Roxas had to frequently stop and wonder if any of this was real or not. Hard as it was to fight Xion herself, much less a Xion transformed, so different in so many ways that left him extremely disturbed, he found it easy to strike down the summon the Superior had given her. For a long time, he'd wanted to know why Xion's summonstone wasn't as powerful as any of the others', or even contained a unique element. The sick truth twisted like a knife in his gut as he dodged around the conjured spaces of the worlds they'd visited together, Ramuh's lightning so thin and feeble he could slice through it with his keyblade as if it were nothing.

_No. XIII, Roxas, the Key of Destiny._

"It makes me feel safe," Roxas once joked when Axel had blurted out the question. Alexander was an exeptionally powerful summon, one that had been hidden in the depths of Hollow Bastion's castle, that Xemnas had kept ever since that world had succumbed to the darkness but he'd never used it for himself. The Superior in time had entrusted it to Roxas, as only he of the Organization was the proper choice for the holy element.

Alexander was also a strange summon—when called on, it would enshroud Roxas in an ethereal armor of ivory, ebony, and silver, and protect its summoner with great wings of light. The first time Roxas had called Alexander, it had hidden him in a giant structure that strongly resembled a castle, loosely based from the look of what Axel had horrifically recognized as Castle Oblivion. The sheer oddity of the situation had Axel pounding on Alexander's doors, shouting, "Why did it put you in a castle?"

Though Alexander had no face, Roxas had the feeling it had wanted to shelter its summoner from the world and all its cruelty.

_No. XII, Larxene, the Savage Nymph._

Ramuh had been Larxene's summon first, as it was the only summonstone the Superior had at the time that bore the element of lightning. Extremely dissatisfied with its meager powers, she was of a strong mind to simply crush Ramuh's summonstone under her heel. Why not, it was completely useless, her own Thundara could outclass this so-called summon any day! Vexen had stopped her, spouting some nonsense like he didn't like to waste materials. Let the puppet have the weak summon, he'd said, and in exchange, they could find Larxene a proper summonstone of her element.

She'd driven Vexen to the ends of hell and back to force him to keep to his bargain. Every single time he would piss and moan about how it wasn't necessary to be sticking her daggers in him with pulses of electricity, but she would just smile and say sweetly, "I want that summon, Vexen, darling." And he had come through for her, extraordinarily so—he wouldn't say where he got it, but what did Larxene care, she had a powerful summon at last.

Ixion was a unicorn of pure lightning, and so much of an improvement over that pushover Ramuh in every way possible. It really was too bad Vexen hadn't said anything about that ever so tiny detail of Ixion having the ability to merge with certain types of machinery, which hurt its uses in Larxene's eyes.

So she destroyed it when it stopped obeying her every whim.

_No. XI, Marluxia, the Graceful Assassin._

Marluxia was a giant flower personified, everyone in the Organization knew that. Despite his ruffles of strawberry pink hair and the way he conjured petals of deepest red from just about anything from waving a hand or throwing his hood down, he was easily one of the Organization's most masculine men. And that was downright frightening. For one reason or another, no one expressed any sort of objection when Xemnas had given Marluxia one of the most unusual—and powerful—summons.

The Magus Sisters suited No. XI well, as they were conjured from flowers and had the appearance of women dressed as insects, Cindy as a ladybug, Sandy as a praying mantis, and Mindy as a bumblebee. They didn't look like the fiercest of summons, but under Marluxia's command they tore everything before them to shreds. Thus Axel knew what he should do when he had been ordered to exterminate the traitors plotting against the Superior in Castle Oblivion.

Marluxia had been amused at the very least during their clash near the top floor. "Why, Axel, I never thought you to be the cheating type."

At that, Axel merely shrugged offhandedly. "Hey, I've got two weapons, why shouldn't I have two summons?" Fire beat greenery, and with two summons of the fire element, the Magus Sisters were quickly done with. But before Axel could finish the job, Marluxia had pulled a cheat of his own, by bringing the girl, Namine, before him as a shield. And then the keyblade hero chose to make his entrance.

"After you, he's next!" Sora had shouted venomously at Axel's exasperated question: was he Marluxia's little puppet already? Axel heaved a deep sigh.

"I'd rather not fight you, Sora. We have more in common than you know."

Even as they clashed, keyblade against chakram, Axel could think only of one thing: how very different the two of them were.

_No. X, Luxord, the Gambler of Fate._

Even as a Nobody, Luxord had taken into stride the idea of life as a gamble, as a game. There was nothing if there was no risk, that there was no chance at all unless you took one. So it was that when Xemnas had presented a row of summonstones, he had chosen one that suited him best. Odin was undoubtedly one of the most powerful summons in existence, but it was difficult to control, and its signature attack that eliminated all enemy opposition was akin to a coin flip with as much chance to fail as to succeed.

His tactic of wrapping up his opponents in mind-reeling games of cards and dice rose to a whole new level when he began incorporating Odin into the mix. If Luxord had his heart, he would have felt sorry for the keybearer he fought.

"Now, I wonder," Luxord smirked as he penned Sora within a wall of cards, "will you survive Zantentsuken once more? Life's but a game, you know."

And he let the dice fall.

_No. IX, Demyx, the Melodious Nocturne._

Sora had asked how a wimp like Demyx had made it into Organization XIII. As he fought the sitar player, he would grudgingly admit the Nobody wasn't half bad, if only for his manipulation of water. At first there were only flawed water forms in Demyx's image, those were disposed of easily enough. Then came the geysers and spurts of water that forced Sora, Donald, and Goofy to throw themselves all over the plaza they fought upon. Enduring another conjured gesyer with a well-timed Reflect spell, Sora spun his body in an arc above Demyx, preparing to attack—

"Dance, water, dance!"

There was a strange aqua glow, and Sora's own cobalt eyes went wide in shock as a collossal sea dragon coiled itself upward. He Reflected against Leviathan's tail as it swat him across the plaza, but there wasn't time for another one when he spotted the wall of water rising with the summon. In desperation more than anything else (using his Drive forms against Organization members lent itself to his Anti-form more often than he would care to admit), he reached out for his friends' power.

"Donald! Goofy!"

When he tried to use Master form against one of the Organization before, he had ended up in Anti-form … twice. Surprisingly, this time he achieved his intended Drive form while channeling the power of his friends. Man, was the King great or what, in this form he had access to a crazy potential of chaining spells together.

Unfortunately for Demyx, Thundaga in Master form was Sora's best friend.

_No. VIII, Axel, the Flurry of Dancing Flames._

Originally Axel had only one summonstone, the one that called forth the beast of hellfire, Ifrit. Normally he would never dare even think of stealing anything from the Superior, much less something like a summonstone. Those treasures Xemnas guarded jealously, almost as faithfully as he guarded the forming Kingdom Hearts on the rooftop of the Castle That Never Was. But he needed the edge of another summon of his element in order to have a shred of hope of taking down the traitor Marluxia, who himself bore one of the most powerful summons Xemnas had ever laid his hands on.

Ifrit on its own was quite a strong summon, Axel was always grateful to have it. Summons had their own tempermental quirks, Ifrit being, predicably, hotheaded and stubborn. If Axel had planned to acquire a summon of a different element, Ifrit most likely wouldn't have allowed it. It was a good thing the one Axel had his eye on bore fire, and a special kind of fire.

Indeed, Ifrit and the Phoenix were practically best friends forever, Axel could feel the warmth and fuzziness from inside his coat pockets where he kept the summonstones. Together, Flame of Rebirth and Hellfire made Marluxia's Magus Sisters look like a joke. He couldn't use those summons against Sora when they fought in Castle Oblivion, their combined fires would have destroyed him, and the keyblade master was not the Organization's enemy.

But why couldn't Axel use those summons against the traitor Roxas? He had tried to convince himself that it wouldn't be a fair fight, Roxas was already handicapped as it was, his very own sense of self restructured to suit DiZ's liking, and even if he had his Alexander summonstone, he had surely forgotten how to use it, along with so much else.

In that clash in the mansion basement, that had been Axel's mistake. But, maybe it wasn't so much of a mistake after all …

_No. VII, Saix, the Luna Diviner._

Just when it couldn't get any worse, Sora thought. Not only did Saix draw down power from the strange moon in the dark sky that turned out to be the Organization's Kingdom Hearts, he, like so many other sof the Organization, had a summonstone as well. While the boy was glad it wasn't anything like Luxord's Odin, at the same time he wasn't sure if Saix's summon was any better to fight against.

There was no escaping Atomos. A great, gortesque monster had materialized before the large window, most of its body nothing but an impossibly gaping maw with row upon row of jagged, sabre like teeth. There was something about those slit yellow eyes that seemed to pull Sora toward it … then he saw the cracks in the glass, spreading in web-like patterns. With a resounding shatter the window broke, and the whirling that swept him into Atomos's cavernous maw, Sora was hit with an odd sense of déjà vu.

This was just like the time the Heartless had overtaken Destiny Islands, and he had been pulled violently into the darkness.

_No. VI, Zexion, the Cloaked Schemer._

"Your tricks avail you nothing!" Riku shouted as he slashed through what appeared to be his lifelong friend Sora in the dark depths of the bottommost floors of this cursed Castle Oblivion. He knew his friend better than anyone, perhaps better than Sora himself did. There was no way he could be fooled by such a base trick.

The Organization member, Zexion, stumbled, but he did not fall. He looked back over his shoulder, at Riku, his face contorting in contempt. "Fine, I'm done playing tricks." He withdrew from his coat a round stone the size of his fist, gleaming a deep red light. Swirling inky black with streaks of red pooled in the floor underfoot, and from its depths, extracted by a three-pronged anchor, was a hideous monster the likes of which Riku had never seen before. Never, not even he who had steeped himself completely in the world of darkness.

It was wrapped in worn bandages, chained around its torso, blood seeping from its visible eye. It had a mouth but no lips, its fangs curling and cruel. Riku cringed as he tasted blood in the air, smelled the stench of death. What manner of creature was this? Beside it, Zexion knelt, smirking smugly.

"Come, Riku. Share your pain with Anima!"

_No. V, Lexaeus, the Silent Hero._

There wasn't anything special about Lexaeus, Riku thought, or the summon he had called forth in the middle of the battle. Like the element he manipulated, No. V's summon was a gargantuan creature of the earth, named Titan. It made the ground rumble and shake, stalagmites jutting upward like so many dragons' teeth. Clad in the darkness that had taken root in his heart, Riku dodged it all.

Perhaps the element had been his weakness as well as his strength. This echoed in Riku's mind as he ran Lexaeus through with his Soul Eater. The earth was strong, powerful, yes, but also rigid, inflexible, heavy. In the end it availed nothing for the cleaver-wielding Nobody. Later on, King Mickey would ask Riku why he hadn't taken the Silent Hero's summonstone.

"I don't need a summonstone." Riku had replied, a hand splayed over his own chest. "Because I've got something much more powerful, much more terrible."

_No. IV, Vexen, the Chilly Academic._

From the first time Sora had met Vexen, he already thought the man was creepy. The second time they fought, in the memory room that took on the shape of a place called Twilight Town, Vexen's creep factor went up exponentially, something that Sora never would have thought possible before then. No. IV's element was ice, that much was obvious from the first time they battled one another, but the second time, Vexen had brought along a friend.

Beckoned forth from a round sphere called a summonstone, the magical entity of ice formed itself to protect Vexen, and its appearance stunned Sora. It was a woman, frighteningly beautiful, made of nothing but ice. She looked frail, with her small frame and heavy locks of hair braided down her back, tied off in large metal rings, but Sora learned quickly not to underestimate her.

Shiva, Vexen called her, and together the two of them began casing the memory room of the old mansion gate of Twilight Town in layers of ice. At first they were slight, nothing more than crusts of frost that easily crunched underfoot. Then, as the fight drew on, it got colder, his breath misting in the air, slipping on thickening ice, the cold seeping into his skin, into his very bones … Dimly he was aware that he could no longer move, his legs burned with the cold.

Smiling as she encased Sora in ice, Shive whispered one phrase.

_Diamond Dust._

Sora's throat burned. He couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't see, couldn't think—

Searing flame slashed through the sheets of ice, Sora's crystal coffin melting away in the blaze. He fell on one knee, using his keyblade as leverage to hold himself up. Between him and Vexen was an entity of flame: a great canine beast with golden fur and bands of fire, long ebony horns branching into forks like a stag's.

"C'mon, Ifrit!" Axel's voice rang loud and clear behind Sora. "Show that ice queen who's boss!"

_No. III, Xaldin, the Whirlwind Lancer._

Sora dove behind a statue on the bridge spanning between the Beast's castle and the thick woods beyond, the force of the winds nearly pushing him flat to the concrete pavement. He pulled himself off the ground and kept moving, to stay still meant pain if not death outright. Sure enough, he heard the telltale _clangs _and stabs of six lances gouge the floor where he had been not moments before. From across the bridge, he heard Donald and Goofy cry out after him, worried, and rightly so.

As if Xaldin and his lances weren't enough, the Nobody had used a summonstone. And, Sora thought irritably as he parried a few spears, jumping backward to avoid the rest, go figure it was a summon that _flew. _Valefor was beautiful, an otherworldly bird with almost draconic characterisitics. Sora would be inclined to like her more if she wasn't routinely flooring him or trying to fry him with that energy ray attack.

Throw in the sonic wing attacks that rendered him dizzy and almost deaf, and Sora was amazed that he had lasted for this long. He supposed it was thanks to Goofy's potions and Donald's Cure spells. But this could go on only for so much longer. Sora knew that unless they could do away with Valefor, Xaldin was unapproachable, and they were all dead. He gripped his keyblade, shrouding himself in a Reflect that shattered in a new attack Valefor used, one like the energy ray but instead of a single ray, it was a blast. There was only one way to best the summon.

"Give me strength!" Sora shouted, reaching across the bridge for Donald and Goofy's powers. There was no other way, Valefor couldn't be bested without using a Drive form. Unfortunately, it wasn't the form they needed.

Golden eyes shone ominously, inky black dripping onto the ground in shapeless blots. He hunched over, crouching like a Shadow, with the same sudden, jerking momements. Seeking, he clawed his way around the bridge, maneuvering well around the lances Xaldin threw at him, leaping up and latching onto the summon that protected the Whirlwind Lancer.

Even in the confusing, dark haze that was his Anti-form, Sora knew this was the only way.

_No. II, Xigbar, the Freeshooter._

"Are you done rambling?"

"Rambling? As if! All I'm trying to tell you, traitor, is that your time is up!"

Xigbar was annoying, not just for his verbal taunts of, "Clever little sneak!" or "Sora! Roxas!" No. II was annoying because of all the magic bullets he manipulated through his power over space. Hell, the man walked on air upside down and teleported not just himself and his bullets around, but changed the very floor Sora, Donald, and Goofy stood upon.

Once the central floor had changed, Xigbar hovering in the center, raining a glorious shower of prismatic bullets on the three of them. Sora wouldn't have known what he'd done if he hadn't those abilities he'd learned from his Drive forms. Despite that, he still accrued his fair share of hurts, and he'd used up all his magic trying to damage Xigbar from afar with Thundaga. Good thing Donald was his friend.

"Roxas!" Xigbar shouted, and Sora charged, gripping the hilt of Oblivion so tightly his fingers were bleached white. At the last moment, the floor changed to the tiny area in the center with nowhere to go, nowhere to run. Hovering upside down above the platform, Xigbar smirked as he aimed his guns. "Let's see how you dance!"

Sora was expecting the same bullet shower as before, but nothing of the sort came. Instead, with a flash of light, a tiny creature appeared. Confused, Sora paused, leaning forward to examine it. It was green, with large ovals for eyes and a mouth which together made a surprised expression. Its limbs were all moving constantly and bent, and three needles stuck on top of its head like tiny hairs. It looked almost like a … cactus?

"Sora, look out!" Donald screeched in his garbled language. "That's a Cactaur!"

The boy quirked a brow, not understanding. "A cact-what?"

If it weren't for Goofy throwing himself in front of Sora, protecting them both with his Save the King shield, the Cactaur's Thousand Needles would have torn him apart.

_No. I, Xemnas, the Superior._

What a cheap, rotten, little son of a—Riku's train of thought derailed violently as his arm crumpled in the blow he'd tried to block, his Way to Dawn keyblade clattering away on the floor. In moments the weapon returned to his hand, and not a moment too soon as the monstrosity Xemnas had summoned careened at him again. This battle was not anything he'd expected it to be. Granted, he was glad to be fighting alongside Sora again, truly this time and not a temporary truce before Riku slunk away in the dark. But to be fighting someone was powerful as Xemnas was hard enough with the Nobody on his own.

In pre-emptive strike that caught the both of them off guard, Xemnas had banished Riku to the far side of the swirling walls of dark and light, and caged Sora in a menacing sphere of rippling black that slowly sapped his strength. Then, to add insult to injury, the Organization's Superior had clutched a summonstone and called forth a great dragon with ebony scales and elegant wings with crimson feathers. Riku had heard tale of this particular summon, a legendary beast that went by many titles, but always by a single name: Bahamut.

"Surrender," Xemnas never spoke above a whisper, but somehow his words always echoed, were always harsh and deafening. He clenched his hands into fists, the sphere caging Sora constricting. "Submit." Sora's screams reverberated throughout the chamber, even as Bahamut lashed Riku away with its thick tail.

"Sora!" Riku flipped in the air, landing on his knees with a wince. He lunged forward, somersaulting as Bahamut dove right at him. "Hold on just a little longer," Riku breathed, grazing the summon's side above with a Dark Aura attack. "I'm gonna help you!" In their deadly dance, their game of cat and mouse, the silver-haired boy noticed the golden symbol on Bahamut's back, spinning and gathering energy, probably for an attack. Aqua eyes darted to Xemnas, to the line of darkness connecting him to Sora's cage.

That was it. If he could just … Riku threw caution to the winds and ran as fast as he was able, feeling the dragon soaring over his head, its shadow casting an ungodly dark shape above. A great beam of light emanated from Bahamut's jaws, dangerously close to Riku's heels. If he could just--! There was an explosion, the force of which sent Riku flying across the battleground.

But, wrapped in his arms, safe and sound, was Sora. His friend was shaken, obviously hurt, but it was nothing that couldn't be helped with Curaga. Way to Dawn in hand, Riku struggled to stand, still trembling from the adrenaline rush. His eyes cast to Xemnas, to the place he had been standing. The Superior had sustained great injury from Bahamut's Mega Flare, but the power of Kingdom Hearts saw him living still. Orange eyes narrowed in Riku's direction.

"Well played." He raised a hand, gripping a tight fist. Above, the great dragon Bahamut roared in agony, and in a blaze of light and dark ceased to be.

Riku's jaw dropped. Never had he seen anyone with a summonstone willfully destroy their summon. Summoners were supposed to have a special bond with their creature, they couldn't just obliterate one another! Behind him, Sora shakily rose to his feet, pushing himself off the ground with Oblivion. Without a second thought Riku offered him a hand, which he accepted readily.

"Riku … thank you."

"After everything we've been through, I'm not losing you now." Riku pulled Sora upright, holding up Way to Dawn. "C'mon, we can take this guy!"

"Yeah! We'll do this! For everyone's sake!"

For everyone's sake. Well, Riku had a small smirk on his face, he supposed that would make him the selfish one.

--

A/N: Took forever . Had to think of all these different scenarios xD Yeah, the Oragnization should've totally had FF summons. Would've been epic doom on a stick.


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